Latest news

A day after Sony revealed that over 7 million PlayStation 4 had been sold, Microsoft countered by announcing that 5 million Xbox One units have been shipped to retailers, although a good portion of those are expected to have been sold to consumers.

Says the software giant: "We're happy to share today that more than 5 million Xbox One consoles have been sold-in to retailers since our launch. The new generation is off to a strong start, with global Xbox One sales outpacing Xbox 360 by more than 60 percent at the same point in time, a true testament to your love of console gaming. Even more important to us is how much fun you are having on Xbox One."

The company also notes that Xbox One gamers are spending an average of five hours per day on the console, totaling over one billion hours of gaming, streaming, and more.

Former Yahoo CEO Henrique de Castro will walk away with $58 million in severance, after being fired just 15 months into the job.

CEO Marissa Mayer personally hired de Castro away from his position at Google in early 2013 and admits Henrique "was not a fit and that's a regrettable conclusion."

De Castro received $1.14 million in salary and bonuses, and $56.8 million in Yahoo stock that doubled in value in 2013 thanks to Yahoo's strong performance.

Mayer, as chief of the company, made $25 million last year in salary and bonuses.

Amazon has announced that its Fire TV set-top box will be getting added partners for its universal voice search feature.

"We're excited and energized by the momentum we're seeing with Fire TV," said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Devices. "Customers are telling us they love it, developers are building for it, and we're working hard to expand existing features and build new ones. We're thrilled to have Hulu Plus, Crackle, and SHOWTIME integrating their full selection of movies and TV shows into Fire TV's unified voice search."

The device will get the new partners over the summer, says Amazon.

Additionally, the company says there is a "big pipeline of great developers working to make their services and games available for Fire TV. New selection is coming from developers like Telltale Games, Halfbrick, Pixowl, Disney Interactive, Minority Media, Paradox Interactive, Gaiam, AllRecipes, and Twitch." Finally, Amazon FreeTime and MP3 will be added soon with the next OTA update.

In 2011, Google launched their Chrome Remote Desktop extension, allowing users to gain access to their machines from other notebooks and desktops, securely.

The service has now been extended to Android devices, with an iOS app coming eventually.

Users can enable remote access to their machines on Mac OSX, Linux and Windows, and Android users will even get another six-digit pin for an extra layer of security. "Computers can be made available on an short-term basis for scenarios such as ad hoc remote support, or on a more long-term basis for remote access to your applications and files. All connections are fully secured," reads the Chrome extension description.

For those worried about having their home computers remotely accessed by intruders, Google notes that "all remote desktop sessions are fully encrypted using Chrome's SSL features." No data is recorded or saved during sessions, and you will always need your PIN and one-time use Access Code to remotely connect.

According to reports, Apple is planning to build a song ID (discovery) feature right into iOS that will work just like Shazam and rival services in allowing iPhone and iPad users to quickly identify a song/artist.

Apple will work directly with the market leader, Shazam, for the technology, which quickly pairs music heard by the device's microphone with a vast database of tracks.

The company remains the world's largest digital music seller via its popular iTunes store, but single and album downloads have finally stagnated after years of strong growth. Streaming services like Spotify and Pandora have taken significant share of the music market and Apple even introduced their own service, iTunes Radio, last year, integrating it with iOS 7.

Samsung has confirmed another smartwatch set for release this year, this one running on Google's Android Wear operating system.

Last year, the company got into the market with its first-generation Galaxy Gear, which uses a Samsung-modified version of Android. Earlier this year, the company announced its Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo devices, each of which run on the Tizen operating system. Samsung's new Gear Fit fitness band runs on its own completely different OS.

Hankil Yoon, Samsung's SVP of product design, confirmed the Android Wear-based device in an interview. Android Wear is Android optimized for wearable devices.

So far, LG and Motorola have also announced watches that run on the OS, set for release over the summer. Google is expected to be building an Android Wear reference device, likely using the Nexus branding name.

LWG Consulting has put together an infographic helping concerned Internet users who may be susceptible to the Heartbleed bug that plagued OpenSSL traffic and only just recently began making headlines.

An estimated 65 percent of all sites on the Web are affected, and major companies have scrambled to issue patches.

Despite most major sites being patched quickly, Heartbleed has been around for at least three years, meaning your passwords and other personal data could be have stolen at some point, well before the patches. There are a number of tools for checking if a site you have been using is, or has been, vulnerable. One such tool is LastPass Heartbleed checker.

As an added protection if you use the Chrome browser, there is a new plugin that will automatically let you know if the site you are visiting is still vulnerable, and will also place a Heartbleed logo next to Google search results.

Try the plugin here and check the infographic below. Worth noting, however, is Google's response here:

Samsung has placed a new time frame for its long-awaited Tizen operating system, claiming it will launch in the Q2.

This is not the first time the company has given a release date for the mobile operating system, but it has delayed it for years, releasing no smartphones or tablets running on Tizen but releasing some cameras and other less popular devices.

More recently, Tizen is powering the newly launched Gear 2 smartwatch.

Two smartphones running on Tizen are expected to be released, allowing Samsung to break some of its dependence on the Android OS. By releasing Tizen, Samsung can better build its own ecosystem, app store and applications, while collecting more revenue per device.

Despite Samsung's heavy marketing power and global brand recognition, prospects for Tizen have not been bright, especially after a delay last year due to market conditions as cited by carrier partners DoCoMo and Orange. The company has now changed the strategy and will release the phones in just a few countries where it believes it can succeed.

The first two devices will include a low-end device for volume sales, and a high-end device that could match the specs of the Galaxy S5 under the hood.

Is Google Fiber headed to New York City to disrupt Time Warner's monopoly?

A new job opening in Google's careers website could possibly be suggesting so, asking for a Google Fiber Regional Sales Manager for New York, that "will manage multiple teams that evangelize Google Fiber services to MDU (multi-dwelling apartments and condos) and large SMB owners."

The Fiber offering, which has up to 1Gb down and upload speeds without caps, would be a significant upgrade from current ISPs in the city, especially on price. A gigabit connection is $70 per month, and usually comes with freebies like a Nexus tablet.

25 Mbit (Google is 40 times faster) connections from Time Warner Cable and Verizon are $60 a month when discounted for combined bundled offerings like TV and landline telephones.

Source:
Google Careers

Apple has made their 8GB model of the iPhone 5c available in a few more European nations.

After a quick maintenance and downtime, the Apple Store came back up yesterday adding the device to the stores for the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Poland and the Czech Republic.

For most of the countries, the 8GB model offers a €50 savings from the 16GB (former) base model. In the Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal and Belgium it costs €549, and €579 in Italy.

The Czech Republic and Sweden each had equivalent price drops.

In March, Apple made the 8GB model available in th UK, France, Germany, Australia and China.

LaCie, the French maker of hard drives and other storage media, is the latest victim of an attack that has exposed customer information and credit card information.

The company confirmed that the FBI notified them on March 19th that "an unauthorized person used malware to gain access to information from customer transactions that were made through LaCie's website." The company has shut down its online store and has hired a private investigation firm.

Shockingly, the company says all transactions made from March 27th, 2013 to March 10th of this year could be affected and the info stolen includes usernames, passwords, full names, addresses, emails and credit card numbers including expiration dates.

To get back on the site you must reset your password, and it is unclear how many consumers are affected.

Krebs on Security first wrote about the breach three weeks before LaCie began sending out emails to affected customers on April 11th, which is equally as shocking and appalling.

Source:
Lacie

Google has announced that it sold out of Google Glass stock that was made available to consumers for the first time yesterday.

As part of its tax day one-day-only sale, anyone in the U.S. could purchase the $1500 eyewear on a first-come, first-serve basis. New "Explorers" received a free pair of glass or sunglass frames.

Google did not reveal how many units were up for sale, and everyone who wanted to get one appears to have been able to. The white colorway sold out first, followed by grey, black, red and blue.

Posting a bit past midnight, Google wrote: "Welcome to our new Explorers! All spots in the Explorer Program have been claimed for now, but if you missed it this time, don't worry. We'll be trying new ways to expand the Explorer program in the future. You can sign up below to stay updated. That's all for now, folks."

The limited rollouts are expected to continue before a full launch either later this year or early next year. Currently, Explorers must apply as developers.

Samsung has announced a full compatibility list for its new Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit smart devices.

As of writing, the devices will be compatible with twenty Galaxy devices, the full list of which is posted below.

12 of the devices are smartphones and the other 8 are Samsung tablets.

Looking forward, the Gear and Fit have their own SDKs and all "resources you need to develop apps for Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo are already available in Tizen SDK for Wearables and Samsung Mobile SDK(Accessory package)," says Samsung.

Full list:

Phones

Galaxy S5
Galaxy Note 3
Galaxy Note 3 Neo
Galaxy S4
Galaxy Note II
Galaxy S III
Galaxy S4 Active
Galaxy S4 mini
Galaxy S4 zoom
Galaxy Mega 6.3
Galaxy Mega 5.8
Galaxy Grand 2

Thanks to a new ruling by the High Court in New Zealand, Kim Dotcom can have his seized personal assets back, including a garage full of luxury cars, millions in cash, and other items taken from the raid of his mansion.

The mansion was raided in 2012 when authorities took down file storage locker Megaupload and arrested its larger-than-life owner, Dotcom. Before the raid, the authorities were granted foreign restraining orders that allowed for the seizure of his assets, but those orders expire on Friday and have not been renewed nor extended.

While Dotcom is certainly excited (see the Tweets embedded below), the authorities have two weeks to file an appeal and given the high profile nature of the case, almost certainly will.

Earlier this week we reported that Amazon was working on its first smartphone, a 3D device that could be unveiled in June for a launch in September.

This morning, pictures emerged purporting to be the alleged Amazon phone, showing off the multiple cameras on the front as rumored to make the device 3D capable without the need for glasses. There are four corner cameras alongside the standard camera.

There is little to see of the design as the company has protected it with a case while still in prototype.

Sources say there will be two handsets released, a high-end and a mid-range model, each with different features and specs. The mid-range device will not have 3D capabilities or the added cameras.

Other than the camera, the phone will have a disappointing 4.7-inch 720p display and a Snapdragon processor, says the sources. The real selling point will be the 3D technology, which means text and images can move as a person head moves (or the phone moves), and could certainly be ideal for visual gaming, thanks to the added depth perception.